Monday, 17 November 2014

The English Football Association has been urged to lobby Uefa for a European boycott of the next World Cup - unless Fifa implements meaningful reform.Former FA chairman David Bernstein said it was time for drastic action against football's world governing body."England on its own cannot influence this," he said. "If we tried something like that, we'd be laughed at."He says a World Cup would be weakened without Europe's top teams and that a boycott would have public backing.

As someone who watches World Cup matches I couldn't care too much where it's played. I'd prefer Russia to South America as it's closer to our time zone.

All this harumphing about what FIFA members did and who bribed them is largely irrelevant. It's no different to the FA selling off TV rights to Sky, except that that's done transparently. FIFA just have to keep up the pretence of picking the best country for prestige, while selling to the highest bidder, but under the counter.